Chocolate Cake

Did you all know that yesterday (Jan. 27th) was National Chocolate Cake day? ... I'm always a day late on things like this. And seriously, how do I get on the memo list for all the "National days of this or that"? I guess I also missed National Beer Can day this week. Who makes these things up?

A friend posted this New York Times link on Facebook. Which totally inspired me to make a cake, but I didn't have all the ingredients for one of their cakes (which by the way, looked amazing), so I made a great vegan chocolate cake. No, I'm not a vegan, I eat bacon, and cheese. That's so not vegan. But I don't discriminate, I've found alternative recipes to be inspiring. So, to all my vegan (but not limited to) friends out there. This is for you, Happy Day After National Chocolate Cake Day. Oh, and I "made up" a chocolate coconut milkly frosting below. Turned out nicely.


Chocolate Cake
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good quality cocoa powder
1 cup almond milk (or soymilk)
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9inch cake pan.
Sift together flours, baking powder and baking soda.
In a saucepan, heat up almond milk and coconut oil on low-medium heat. When the coconut oil has melted, add coca powder, whisk well and remove from heat.
Add the maple syrup, agave and vanilla to the chocolate mixture, mix well then add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for about 25 mins - until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Let cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
Once again, I made this up in the moment, so I wrote everything down the best I could remember!
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 cup chocolate chips

Whisk together the coconut milk and powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a double broiler. Whisk the melted chocolate/oil into the coconut milk/powdered sugar. Once mixed well, put in the freezer for about 10 mins. Mix again and use!